Scared or Dead
by Tom T. Thomson
Summary: One shot. Papa always said If you're not scared, you're dead. Then he would tell me that being dead isn't good.


If I listened carefully, I could hear the cries of people in the neighboring village and it scared me. Mama says it's good to be scary. Papa says that too, he says 'if you're not scared, you're dead'. Then he tells me that being dead isn't a good thing. So I find ways to stay scared, and listening to the vampires coming seems to work well.

Mama was making dinner for Papa and me when a man came by the house. The light had faded from the sky and that made me scared too. Papa greeted him at the door and let him in. Mama had started cutting the vegetables when the man said that the vampires were on their way. They were going to burn my village too. Just like they had done to the others.

Mama didn't look up from her cutting. She said 'they wont come tonight. They just started burning the other villages. The sun will be back in the sky before they can get here.' Mama dumped the cut vegetables into a big iron pot and smiled. 'We still have tomorrow to get ready.' Papa agreed with her. I didn't care; I was scared. They were coming here and Papa and Mama didn't seem worried.

The man said that the vampires that were attacking the other villages were different. 'Sun doesn't harm them' he said. 'I've seen some in water.'

That made me very scared. So scared that I dropped my fork because my hands were trembling so much.

Mama picked it up and wiped it clean with a fist full of her skirt. 'Don't worry so, my child. He is just spinning tales'. But the man said 'I am spinning no tales! I just heard from a man who has run away from our neighboring village. He says he saw one pull a little girl under water before drowning her.'

I didn't want to hear any more. I was scared enough. I wanted to go to bed, but Papa said 'fear will keep you alive' but then Mama said 'or give him nightmares. Let him go to bed, it's late'. And Mama picked me up and carried me to bed. Mama didn't have me change into night clothes and I thought I knew why. Mama believed the man, Mama was afraid that the vampires were coming tonight.

I couldn't sleep for the longest time. I was scared that I would never see Mama again. Or Papa.

I did go to sleep, I had to have. The orange flickering light outside of my window woke me. I stared at the house that faced my room. It was burning.

The vampires were here.

I was up and running down the stairs. I had to find Mama and Papa. I made my way to their door and opened it … It wasn't what I had wanted to find. Mama was… Mama had been…

Where was Papa?

I had to find him. Papa could be in trouble. My search didn't last long. As soon as I opened the door to run outside, I found Papa laying there covered in red sticky stuff. Did this mean that Mama and Papa had not been scared? All I knew was that I was scared. Very scared. I didn't want to be dead like… like…

I ran. I ran passed burning homes and passed people screaming. I didn't care where I was or where I was headed, I just wanted to get out of there.

I caught. An arm grabbed me from behind and pulled me close to a body that was _cold_. People weren't suppose to be cold and that too scared me, although there was nothing I could to about it. The arm holding me was too strong for me to break out of. I stopped caring much about the arm around me when a hand yanked my head off to one side, fast enough to cause me enough pain to slightly come out of me emotional shock and for a moment I saw what was in front of me: the man who had come by earlier to warn Mama and Papa about the vampires. Something had ripped out his throat and I could see the white of bone under the black of the blood. Then whatever had me cause me even more pain when it started to eat me. This thing was _eating_ me. I could feel it draining me of my life. I could feel it…

I woke up sometime later and it was dark and cold. I didn't like it and I wanted to go home. Go home and crawl into bed with Mama and Papa and tell them about the nightmare I had. But deep down, I knew there was no home to go to and Mama and Papa wouldn't be there.

My neck hurt. When I looked up, I felt pain there like nothing I have ever felt before. Hesitantly, I touched the side of my neck and instantly pulled my hand away. In the small touch, I could tell that it had a hole in it and the edges were ragged and torn.

There wasn't anyone in the small room with me, but I heard voices on the other side. 'He will grow fast enough.' 'True. But he will need to be fed. Who will get that for him?' Another voice said 'I think Dayne should. He brought the boy here.'

Someone came to the door and opened it. The thing was tall, much taller than I was and it too scared me. I was alive, but for how much longer? No light came into the room from the other side of the door and it slowly accord to me that this things didn't need light to see.

'Listen, kid. We aren't going to kill you. We are here to help you.' 'Nice, Dayne, get the kid's hopes up.' 'Shove it! Don't listen to him, he's leaving soon anyways.'

Turned out all that was true. The vampire who didn't like me left soon after sundown and Dayne and the other one stayed. I never left that room, but I never needed too. Dayne brought me very thing that I needed to me, like water and food.

They told me about their Lord who they severed loyally. They told me about how He could, and would, rule the land as its Emperor, how He would unite the land under His rule. He would rule with a fair hand and He had told them, as His followers, to do the same. 'We aren't going to kill you unless you give us fair reason to, got that kid?' And then I would tell Dayne that I got it and the other vampire would tell him 'kid's not a kid anymore.' I guess this was true now. Time passed slowly but it still passed. I had grown, now I was almost as tall as Dayne who was taller than Papa. I had become strong too. The vampires had taught me how to fight and I could almost take one on and win now. They said I would be a good solider and, when I met their Lord, He too would be proud of me.

Then one night I lay awake and realized that I wasn't scared anymore. I felt myself swell with pride, I wasn't scared, I wasn't dead. Papa was wrong. I was alive. I closed my eyes and slept well that night. When dawn came, Dayne told me to go back to sleep. 'We will make the trek to the Sanctuary tonight and you will want all of your strength'.

That night I finally was aloud to take my first steps out of that room in years. The soft light of the stars stung my eyes and I was forced to squint against the glare. 'Let's go'.

We walked for miles. My feet had started to bleed from the walking and my breathing was becoming difficult. Just as the sky started to lighten, I was greeted with a glimpse of the Sanctuary. My vampire companions lead me through a maze of doors that I knew I would never be able to find my way out of. I was tired, my limbs had started to tremble slightly a few miles back and my vision had started to go fuzzy. Dayne opened one last door and said 'this is your room'. I thanked him and as soon as they left, I fell on to the bed.

Dayne would later tell me that I had worked my self to death. He claimed partial responsibility by saying he should have known a human could not have made the walk all in one night; he said he should have had us go slower and brake up the journey into two nights. I told him it didn't matter, I was fine now. My vision was back and better than ever. I no longer needed to breath. I felt wonderful. I no longer held fear as a strength; Dayne had finally taught me that it was a weakness. I took this to heart when I was told I would join the next raid.

That's were I am now. I stand a top a hill with rows of my brothers on either side of me and right now I feel invincible as if nothing could touch me. We hold torches for burning the villager's houses. We would scare them into coming to us. We would use fear, the emotion Papa had always told me to feel, against them. Something was tugging at my memory, something that had reminded me of my long gone childhood and the raid on my own village before I was picked up by Dayne. Something familiar about this village. But I should the nagging thought 'it's my village, it's my home' out of my head. It no longer matter if I had lived here once upon a time. I was a vampire now. My human life didn't matter to me anymore. All that matter was winning this battle for my Lord.

AN: Bad ending I know. I thought it would be fun doing a story from a human's point of view for once. Normally I do a story like this in one sitting but this one took me three days to do so it might not be as smooth as I was hoping for. Oh and anyone notice how Papa lets the man in without asking him many questions when he was telling his son to be uber - paranoid?


End file.
